With the deteriorating situation and unstable conditions in Kirkuk, Christians are considering fleeing the northern city where they have lived for decades.

Farish Nzarit Gatalian, an Armenian Christian living in Kirkuk, says that "the lucky person is he who gets a [foreign] visa and leaves this city."

Fifty-year-old Gatalian, sitting in front of a picture of Jesus in his home, says that he no longer feels safe in the city and that he fears for the future of himself and his family. "When I go to work I'm never sure whether I will return home alive or dead in a coffin," he said, explaining his reason for wanting to leave.

According to Gatalian, the plight of Iraqi Christians has becoming increasingly perilous and he told Niqash that most of his relatives have already fled the country. "During the past 40 years there were some 1000 Christian families from Armenian origin but now only 70 families are left," he said, adding that Christians in Kirkuk have lost all hope of staying in their city.

On the back of the tense political situation in Kirkuk over the status of the disputed territories, tensions between the city's four ethnic groups, Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens and Christians, have significantly worsened. Kirkuk's Christians live, for the most part, in Arafa, al-Mas and al-Masour neighbourhoods. Like other groups in the city, they say they live in a state of continuous struggle to preserve their religion and identity.

Local Christians say that they are now targets of armed groups and tens of them have been killed and kidnapped, while their churches have been bombed.

Two weeks ago, Imad, a young Christian man was abducted as he left his home heading to work at a local hospital. Two days later his dead body was discovered. Shortly before this incident, a Christian doctor was kidnapped and only released after the payment of a US $100,000 ransom. While in captivity the doctor was tortured.

Imad Yuhanna Yaqo, a member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), a Christian party, told Niqash that they had recorded "seven deaths and four kidnappings between April and September. This has led 20 Christian families to flee Kirkuk and go to the Kurdistan Region or other countries like Syria and Jordan."

Yaqo told Niqash that "the number of Christians in Kirkuk before the fall of the Baath regime was more than 20,000. This number has dropped to 10,000 and the number continues to decrease